Yesterday I detailed Thursday night’s NAACP forum and bemoaned the lack of participation by challengers. However, several different sources have chimed in to comment that these same candidates were unaware of the event.
It’s noteworthy to mention that, aside from the various Central Committee posts, there are 13 incumbents running for county office and I believe all but one was in attendance. (I honestly don’t recall seeing Karen Lemon, who is running unopposed for Register of Wills – but she may have been there.) On the other hand, only 8 of 16 challengers were there and none of them were what you would consider “Tea Party” candidates. (For the purpose of this discussion, these would be County Executive candidate John Wayne Baker, County Council at-large candidates Mike Brewington and Chris Lewis, and District 2 challenger Mike Calpino. In the group you have two Democrats, a Republican, and a Libertarian, so it’s not exclusionary by party.)
Allow me to contribute my two cents to the story. I only heard about the event because I peruse candidate calendars to create my weekly Election Calendar, and it was on Joe Ollinger’s website that I saw the note about the NAACP forum being held. In fact, my original mention of the event had it beginning at 6 p.m. and not 7:00 because there was no time listed and I was going from memory of similar forums in 2006.
I received my personal invitation from the e-mail account of Orville Penn (who was the moderator) on Monday last – it was sent late Sunday night. The addressee was NAACP Wicomico (a common tactic to verify the e-mail got out) and it was cc’d to 20 candidates, mostly Central Committee members but also aspirants for State’s Attorney, Judge of the Orphans’ Court, Register of Wills, Clerk of Courts, amd Sheriff. It also appears that Penn received the information from the Board of Elections website, so if a candidate did not list an e-mail he or she was skipped.
This is the content of the invitation itself:
July 10, 2010
Dear Political Candidate;
You are cordially invited to participate in the NAACP’s Meet the Candidates political forum. The forum will be held at 7:00pm on July 22, 2010 at First Baptist Church, located on the corner of Delaware and Booth Streets in Salisbury.
The forum will give members of our community the opportunity to meet you. Please confirm your attendance by contacting the NAACP’s office at 410-543-4187 upon receipt of the correspondence, it will be appreciated.
by July 15, 2010.We look forward to seeing you on the 22nd of July.
Sincerely,
Mary Ashanti
Mary Ashanti, President
(Note that the formatting and emphasis is as it was in the original, and the July 15 date was crossed out.)
It’s worth noting that a handful of candidates on the ballot did not supply an e-mail to the Board of Elections; however, none of the aggrieved candidates are among that group.
It appears the answer to this mystery would be to see the original e-mail sent out on or about July 10th, presumably to all the candidates who were originally slated to speak – County Executive and County Council hopefuls. Since everyone who is looking for that office has an e-mail we would immediately find out if any omissions were made.
So did the NAACP skip candidates who have been associated with the local Tea Party movement? In Chris Lewis’s case it’s very possible since his e-mail provided to the Board of Elections has the phrase “tea party” in it – for others it’s less clear. But without proof it’s a matter of he said, she said.
With another forum for state-level candidates being planned, such an omission may affect a few candidates there as well.
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